You Have No Federal Government Experience

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Where do I start?
In order to begin selling your products and services to the federal government, you must register at the System for Award Management (SAM) website. You must update the information annually, or whenever changes need to be made.

Company Information: You will need a Dun & Bradstreet number (DUNS); your company’s Tax ID Number (TIN); and information on your company’s size, number of employees and revenue.

Products or Services Information: You will need to determine the North American Industrial Classification Codes (NAICS) that apply to the products or services you offer. You will also need therelevant Federal Supply Codes and Product Service Codes, available in the Products and Service Codes Manual.

Contact Information: You must designate Points of Contract for Government Business, Remittance and Contract Administration

There is NO COST to register at this site. Beware of look-alike websites that appear to be federal sites, but are actually commercial companies who charge a fee to register your company. While you may decide to engage a consultant to help with this process, you can elect to complete this yourself – the only cost is your time! Tip: Federal websites end in .gov or .mil domain names.Note: Until 2012 all registrations were via the Central Contractors Registration (CCR) site.

Could I be competitive? Who is my competition? Do agencies buy what I sell?

When you registered at the System for Award Management, you found the NAICS codes for your industry, and the codes for the products or services that you offer. Use this information to do some simple market research, to help you understand whether you can compete in the federal government marketplace.

Search GSA’s Advantage website
to see if your products or services are listed, and your competitor’s prices.

Small Business Preference Programs – “Set-Asides”
All federal agencies have a goal to award 23% of contracting dollars to small businesses, including woman-owned, veteran-owned, disadvantaged small businesses, and businesses located in a HUB-Zone.The Small Business Administration (SBA) determines the appropriate Small Business Size Standards on an industry-by-industry basis.There are set-aside programs for

Woman-Owned Small Business.

Veteran-Owned and Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business

Disadvantaged (8a) Small Business

Businesses located in a Historically Underutilized Business area (Hub-Zone)

For more information on the Set-Aside programs, and their eligibility criteria, click here.